Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
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Brigitte Clavette is the 2022 winner of the Saidye Bronfman Award for the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Directed by Chris LeBlanc et Jérôme Luc Paulin.
A co-production of the Canada Council for the Arts and Isjaki Studio. A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm's-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) "to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts."
For more information, visit: en.ggarts.ca
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Transcript:
My name is Brigitte Clavette and I am a jeweller, metalsmith and sculptor.
I live in New Brunswick.
When I was eight years old, I met a woman who had a huge impact on my life and the life of many young artists and young people in Madawaska County: Audrey Côté St-Onge. When I was eight, she gave me my first painting kit and crayons and things that had an impact as a way to express myself.
Silver is such an interesting material. I love it. You have a love-hate relationship with it sometimes because in its character, being sterling, it can tarnish. And I often say that silver is like a vain lover; it likes to be touched. It has to be touched in order to stay shiny. If you ignore it a little bit too long it becomes petulant and becomes black. And people can’t cope with that. It’s a relationship. And me working with it, it does what I want pretty well. (laughs)
I am shiny because I love what I do. And I am proud of the work that I have been doing—teaching—for so many years. The creative part of teaching; you get fed by the students. They inspire you, they challenge you. So I’m gauging their success incrementally. That’s my job. It’s to make sure that everybody grows and learns something.
I have distinct creative phases. It can be through design, or drawing, and then suddenly it’s an unusual object that I found somewhere. Or I decide to cast metal—so I cast metal. The other side of me that is methodical and meditative wants to make a bowl, fashion it and hammer, hammer, hammer it until I have the shape I want. Or I can make some sort of painting or watercolour that can start to inspire me—and these things go together. And I like creating pieces that you could use as a table centrepiece.
And what happens is that, as I create, putting a bowl and maybe a crow’s foot or something that’s a little repulsive… That’s what I like—the tension the work creates between beauty and the decision to add in organic things like that. It’s a small amount of tension I like to create in my creations.
I am very grateful to be getting the Saidye Bronfman Award for my work, for my work as a jeweller and metalsmith, but also as recognition for my teaching and my career, where I worked to help and inspire so many others.
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
Twitter - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
Twitter - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
Please like this video and subscribe to support the arts in Canada.
Brigitte Clavette is the 2022 winner of the Saidye Bronfman Award for the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Directed by Chris LeBlanc et Jérôme Luc Paulin.
A co-production of the Canada Council for the Arts and Isjaki Studio. A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm's-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) "to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts."
For more information, visit: en.ggarts.ca
****
Transcript:
My name is Brigitte Clavette and I am a jeweller, metalsmith and sculptor.
I live in New Brunswick.
When I was eight years old, I met a woman who had a huge impact on my life and the life of many young artists and young people in Madawaska County: Audrey Côté St-Onge. When I was eight, she gave me my first painting kit and crayons and things that had an impact as a way to express myself.
Silver is such an interesting material. I love it. You have a love-hate relationship with it sometimes because in its character, being sterling, it can tarnish. And I often say that silver is like a vain lover; it likes to be touched. It has to be touched in order to stay shiny. If you ignore it a little bit too long it becomes petulant and becomes black. And people can’t cope with that. It’s a relationship. And me working with it, it does what I want pretty well. (laughs)
I am shiny because I love what I do. And I am proud of the work that I have been doing—teaching—for so many years. The creative part of teaching; you get fed by the students. They inspire you, they challenge you. So I’m gauging their success incrementally. That’s my job. It’s to make sure that everybody grows and learns something.
I have distinct creative phases. It can be through design, or drawing, and then suddenly it’s an unusual object that I found somewhere. Or I decide to cast metal—so I cast metal. The other side of me that is methodical and meditative wants to make a bowl, fashion it and hammer, hammer, hammer it until I have the shape I want. Or I can make some sort of painting or watercolour that can start to inspire me—and these things go together. And I like creating pieces that you could use as a table centrepiece.
And what happens is that, as I create, putting a bowl and maybe a crow’s foot or something that’s a little repulsive… That’s what I like—the tension the work creates between beauty and the decision to add in organic things like that. It’s a small amount of tension I like to create in my creations.
I am very grateful to be getting the Saidye Bronfman Award for my work, for my work as a jeweller and metalsmith, but also as recognition for my teaching and my career, where I worked to help and inspire so many others.
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
Twitter - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
Twitter - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
